Apparatus for dimensioning the control channel for transmission efficiency in communications systems

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention provide methods for optimizing the spectral efficiency of control channel transmissions carrying scheduling assignments from a serving Node B to user equipments. This is accomplished by adjusting the control channel size between successive transmission time intervals according to the number of user equipments having scheduling assignments and possibly according to the modulation and coding scheme used for the transmission of each scheduling assignments.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and incorporates by reference U.S.Provisional Application Nos.: 60/732,868, filed Nov. 2, 2005; 60/746,450filed May 4, 2006; and 60/805,148 filed Jun. 19, 2006.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND

Embodiments of the invention are directed, in general, to communicationsystems and, more specifically, to dimensioning control channels andoptimizing the spectral efficiency of their transmission in the downlinkof a communication system.

The global market for both voice and data communication servicescontinues to grow as does use of the systems which deliver suchservices. As communication systems evolve, system design has becomeincreasingly demanding in relation to equipment and performancerequirements. Future generations of communication systems, will berequired to provide high quality high transmission rate data services inaddition to high quality voice services. Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) is a technique that will allow for high speed voiceand data communication services.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is based on thewell-known technique of Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). OFDMtechnique relies on the orthogonality properties of the fast Fouriertransform (FFT) and the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) toeliminate interference between carriers. At the transmitter, the precisesetting of the carrier frequencies is performed by the IFFT. The data isencoded into constellation points by multiple (one for each carrier)constellation encoders. The complex values of the constellation encoderoutputs are the inputs to the IFFT. For wireless transmission, theoutputs of the IFFT are converted to an analog waveform, up-converted toa radio frequency, amplified, and transmitted. At the receiver, thereverse process is performed. The received signal (input signal) isamplified, down converted to a band suitable bar analog to digitalconversion, digitized, and processed by a FFT to recover the carriers.The multiple carriers are then demodulated in multiple constellationdecoders (one for each carrier), recovering the original data. Since anIFFT is used to combine the carriers at the transmitter and acorresponding FFT is used to separate the carriers at the receiver, theprocess has potentially zero inter-carrier interference such as when thesub-carriers are separated in frequency by an amount larger than themaximum expected Doppler shift.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrative of the Frequency 103-Time 101Representation 100 of an OFDM Signal. In FDM different streams ofinformation are mapped onto separate parallel frequency channels 140.Each FDM channel is separated from the others by a frequency guard bandto reduce interference between adjacent channels.

The OFDM technique differs from traditional FDM in the followinginterrelated ways:

-   -   1. multiple carriers (called sub-carriers 150) carry the        information stream;    -   2. the sub-carriers 150 are orthogonal to each other; and    -   3. a Cyclic Prefix (CP) 110 (also known as guard interval) is        added to each symbol 120 to combat the channel delay spread and        avoid OFDM inter-symbol interference (ISI).

The data/information carried by each sub-carrier 150 may be user data ofmany forms, including text, voice, video, and the like. In addition, thedata includes control data, a particular type of which is discussedbelow. As a result of the orthogonality, ideally each receiving elementtuned to a given sub-carrier does not perceive any of the signalscommunicated at any other of the sub-carriers. Given this aspect,various benefits arise. For example, OFDM is able to use orthogonalsub-carriers and, as a result, thorough use is made of the overall OFDMspectrum. As another example, in many wireless systems, the sametransmitted signal arrives at the receiver at different times havingtraveled different lengths due to reflections in the channel between thetransmitter and receiver. Each different arrival of the sameoriginally-transmitted signal is typically referred to as a multi-path.Typically, multi-paths interfere with one another, which is sometimesreferred to as InterSymbol Interference (ISI) because each path includestransmitted data referred to as symbols. Nonetheless, the orthogonalityimplemented by OFDM with a CP considerably reduces or eliminates ISIand, as a result, a less complex receiver structure, such as one withoutan equalizer (one-tap “equalizer” is used), may be implemented in anOFDM system.

The Cyclic Prefix (CP) (also referred to as guard interval) is added toeach symbol to combat the channel delay spread and avoid ISI. FIG. 2 isa diagram illustrative of using CP to eliminate ISI and performfrequency domain equalization. Blocks 200 each comprising cyclic prefix(CP) 210 coupled to data symbols 220 to perform frequency domainequalization. OFDM typically allows the application of simple, 1-tap,frequency domain equalization (FDE) through the use of a CP 210 at everyFFT processing block 200 to suppress multi-path interference. Two blocksare shown for drawing convenience. CP 210 eliminates inter-data-blockinterference and multi-access interference using Frequency DivisionMultiple Access (FDMA).

Since orthogonality is typically guaranteed between overlappingsub-carriers and between consecutive OFDM symbols in the presence oftime/frequency dispersive channels, the data symbol density in thetime-frequency plane can be maximized and high data rates can be veryefficiently achieved for high Signal-to-Interference and Noise Ratios(SINR).

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrative of CP Insertion. A number of samplesare typically inserted between useful OFDM symbols 320 (guard interval)to combat OFDM ISI induced by channel dispersion, assist receiversynchronization, and aid spectral shaping. The guard interval 310 istypically a prefix that is inserted 350 at the beginning of the usefulOFDM symbol (OFDM symbol without the CP) 320. The CP duration 315 shouldbe sufficient to cover most of the delay-spread energy of a radiochannel impulse response. It should also be as small as possible sinceit represents overhead and reduces OFDM efficiency. Prefix 310 isgenerated using a last block of samples 340 from the useful OFDM symbol330 and is therefore a cyclic extension to the OFDM symbol (cyclicprefix).

When the channel delay spread exceeds the CP duration 315, the energycontained in the ISI should be much smaller than the useful OFDM symbolenergy and therefore, the OFDM symbol duration 325 should be much largerthan the channel delay spread. However, the OFDM symbol duration 323should be smaller than the minimum channel coherence time in order tomaintain the OFDM ability to combat fast temporal fading. Otherwise, thechannel may not always be constant over the OFDM symbol and this mayresult in inter-sub-carrier orthogonality loss in fast fading channels.Since the channel coherence time is inversely proportional to themaximum Doppler shift (time-frequency duality), this implies that thesymbol duration should be much smaller than the inverse of the maximumDoppler shift.

The large number of OFDM sub-carriers makes the bandwidth of individualsub-carriers small relative to the total signal bandwidth. With anadequate number of sub-carriers, the inter-carrier spacing is muchnarrower than the channel coherence bandwidth. Since the channelcoherence bandwidth is inversely proportional to the channel delayspread, the sub-carrier separation is generally designed to be muchsmaller that the inverse of the channel coherence time. Then, the fadingon each sub-carrier appears flat in frequency and this enables 1-tapfrequency equalization, use of high order modulation, and effectiveutilization of multiple transmitter and receiver antenna techniques suchas Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO). Therefore, OFDM effectivelyconverts a frequency-selective channel into a parallel collection offrequency flat sub-channels and enables a very simple receiver.Moreover, in order to combat Doppler effects, the inter-carrier spacingshould be much larger than the maximum Doppler shift.

FIG. 4 shows the concepts of frequency diversity 400 and multi-userdiversity 405. Using link adaptation techniques based on the estimateddynamic channel properties, the OFDM transmitter can adapt thetransmitted signal to each User Equipment (UE) to match channelconditions and approach the ideal capacity of frequency-selectivechannel. Thanks to such properties as flattened channel per sub-carrier,high-order modulation, orthogonal sub-carriers, a MIMO, it is possibleto improve spectrum utilization and increase achievable peak data ratein OFDM system. Also, OFDM can provide scalability for various channelbandwidths (i.e. 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 MHz) without significantlyincreasing complexity.

OFDM may be combined with Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) inan Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system to allowmultiplexing of multiple UEs over the available bandwidth. Because OFDMAassigns UEs to isolated frequency sub-carriers, intra-cell interferencemay be avoided and high data rate may be achieved. The base station (orNode B) scheduler assigns physical channels based on Channel QualityIndication (CQI) feedback information from the UEs, thus effectivelycontrolling the multiple-access mechanism in the cell. For example, inFIG. 4, transmission to each of the three UEs 401, 402, 403 is scheduledat frequency sub-bands where the channel frequency response allows forhigher SINR relative to other sub-bands. This is represented by theReceived signal levels R401, R402, and R403 for users 401, 402 and 403at Frequencies F401, F402, and F403 respectively.

OFDM can use frequency-dependent scheduling with optimal per sub-bandModulation & Coding Scheme (MCS) selection. For each UE and eachTransmission Time Interval (TTI), the Node B scheduler selects fortransmission with the appropriate MCS a group of the active UEs in thecell, according to some criteria that typically incorporate theachievable SINR per sub-band based on the CQI feedback. A UE may beassigned the same sub-band for transmission or reception of its datasignal during the entire TTI. In addition, sub-carriers or group ofsub-carriers may be reserved to transmit pilot, control signaling orother channels. Multiplexing may also be performed in the timedimension, as long as it occurs at the OFDM symbol rate or at a multipleof the symbol rate (i.e. from one TTI to the next). The MCS used foreach sub-carrier or group of sub-carriers can also be changed at thecorresponding rate, keeping the computational simplicity of theFFT-based implementation. This allows 2-dimensional time-frequencymultiplexing, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6.

Turning now to FIG. 5, which is a diagram illustrative of aconfiguration for multi-user diversity. The minimum frequency sub-bandused for frequency-dependent scheduling of a UE typically comprisesseveral sub-carriers and may be referred to as a Resource Block (RB)520. Reference number 520 is only pointing to one of the 8 RBs per OFDMsymbol shown as example and for drawing clarity. RB 520 is shown with RBbandwidth 525 (typically comprising of a predetermined number ofsub-carriers) in frequency dimension and time duration 510 (typicallycomprising of a predetermined number of OFDM symbols such as one TTI) intime dimension. Each RB may be comprised of continuous sub-carriers andthus be localized in nature to afford frequency-dependent scheduling(localized scheduling). A high data rate UP may use several RBs withinsame TTI 530. UE #1 is shown as UP example of a high rate UE. Low datarate UEs requiring few time-frequency resources may be multiplexedwithin the same RB 540 or, alternatively, the RB size may be selected tohe small enough to accommodate the lowest expected data rate.

Alternatively referring to FIG. 6, which is a diagram illustrative of aconfiguration for frequency diversity, an RB 620 may correspond to anumber of sub-carriers substantially occupying the entire bandwidththereby offering frequency diversity (distributed scheduling). This mayhe useful in situations where CQI feedback per RB is not available or itis unreliable (as is the case for high speed UEs) and only CQI over theentire frequency band is meaningful. Therefore, a sub-band (or RB)consists of a set of sub-carriers that may be either consecutive ordispersed over the entire spectrum. It should be noted, that anotheroption to achieve frequency diversity is to assign to a UP two or moreRBs with each RB comprising of contiguous sub-carriers but and with eachRB occupying non-contiguous parts of the bandwidth. in such cases, an RBalways consists of a contiguous set of sub-carriers (for both localizedand distributed scheduling).

By assigning transmission to various simultaneously scheduled UEs indifferent RBs, the Node B scheduler can provide intra-cell orthogonalityamong the various transmitted signals. Moreover, for each individualsignal, the presence of the cyclic prefix provides protection frommultipath propagation and maintains in this manner the signalorthogonality.

Each scheduled UE is informed of its scheduling assignment by theserving Node B through the downlink (DL) control channel. This controlchannel typically carries the scheduled UE identities (IDs), RBassignment information, the MCS used to transmit the data, the transportblock size, and hybrid ARQ (HARQ) information relating to possible datapacket re-transmissions in case of a previous erroneous reception forthe same data packet. The control channel may also optionally carryadditional information such as for the support of a multi-inputmulti-output (MIMO) scheme for transmission and reception with multipleantennas. A scheduling assignment may relate either to data transmissionfrom the Node B to a UE (DL of a communication system) or to datatransmission from a UE to the Node B (UL of a communication system).

According to one prior art method for the control channel transmission,such as the one employed by the WiMax communication system, the controlchannel information for all scheduled UEs is jointly coded with a knownMCS. This MCS has to be a low one in terms of spectral efficiency (forexample, QPSK modulation and low rate convolutional or turbo coding withpossible repetitions) as the control channel needs to be received by allUEs in the serving Node B area including ones potentially experiencingvery low SINR. As a result, the control channel size and correspondingoverhead may become excessively large, thereby adversely affecting thesystem throughput.

According to another prior art method for the control channeltransmission, the control channel information for all scheduled UEs isseparately coded with a known fixed MCS and power control may be appliedto the transmission. In this manner, the control channel transmissionpower for UEs located closer to the serving Node B is reduced while thetransmission power for UEs located near the edge is increased to accountfor the path loss. This scheme improves the overall spectral efficiencyby reducing the interference caused by the control channel transmission.Nevertheless, as power control adaptation is based on prior CQI feedbackfrom UEs, it is not generally possible to predict the futureinterference conditions in order for the power control to be effective.Moreover, this transmission method may result to significant andunpredictable interference variations making the whole schedulingprocess less reliable. For example, a conflict occurs when the controlchannels to cell edge UEs in adjacent Node Bs are transmitted from theseNode Bs using substantially the same frequency resources. Then,transmission power control is ineffective as it is substantiallycancelled since the interfering transmissions apply the sametransmission power control. Separate transmission of the control channelto scheduled UEs with a fixed MCS is used in the 3 GPP HSDPAcommunication system.

Thus, there is a need for a method to provide reliable transmission ofthe DL control channel while optimizing the corresponding spectralefficiency of the transmission in a communication system.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention provide methods for robust control channeltransmission with optimum spectral efficiency in the downlink of acommunication system. Based on explicit or implicit channel qualityindicator (CQI) feedback from user equipments (UEs) and the estimatedpath loss, a serving base station (Node B) transmits the control channelto a scheduled UE using a modulation and coding scheme (MCS)substantially determined from the CQI feedback for said UEs. This CQIfeedback may be explicit for the communication in the downlink (DL)channel or implicit through the transmission of a reference signal forthe communication in the uplink (UL) channel. The spectral efficiency ofthe corresponding control channel transmission is optimized by havingthe Node B select the appropriate MCS.

As the number of DL and UL scheduled UEs may vary during consecutivetransmission time intervals Mils) and the corresponding control channelsmay be transmitted with different MCS, the size of the total controlchannel may also vary. The Node B communicates the number of DL and ULscheduling assignments in each MCS region, belonging to a predeterminedset of MCS regions, through a field that is separately transmitted priorto the remaining part of the control channel carrying the DL and ULscheduling assignments. Alternatively, the Node B may communicate thesize of the control channel in each of the MCS regions. This field has afixed and pre-determined size and MCS and should be received at least byall DL and UL UEs having scheduling assignments and potentially by allUEs communicating with the reference serving Node B regardless if theyreceive a scheduling assignment during the reference TTI. Then, each UEcan know of the size of the control channel and, for a pre-determinedform of transmission of the control channel codewords in the various MCSregions (for example, codewords in the lowest MCS region are transmittedfirst in predetermined time-frequency resources, followed by thecodewords in the second lowest MCS region, and so on) the UE can know ofthe MCS region where its control channel codeword is transmitted. MCSregions are assumed to be ranked according to their spectral efficiency(for example, the MCS region with QPSK modulation and ⅓ code rate isranked lower than the MCS region with QAM16 modulation and ¼ code rate).Since all scheduled UEs can know the control channel size, notime-frequency resources need to be wasted for transmission of DL datapackets since all of the remaining resources can be utilized for datatransmission without additional signaling, thereby effectivelyadditionally improving the spectral efficiency of the control channeltransmission.

These and other features and advantages will be more clearly understoodfrom the following detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the disclosure and the advantagesthereof, reference is now made to the following brief description, takenin connection with the accompanying drawings and detailed description,wherein like reference numerals represent like parts.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrative of the Frequency-Time Representation ofan OFDM Signal;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrative of using cyclic prefix (CP) toeliminate ISI and perform frequency domain equalization;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrative of Cyclic Prefix (CP) Insertion

FIG. 4 shows the concepts of frequency and multi-user diversity;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrative of a configuration for Multi-UserDiversity;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrative of a configuration for frequencydiversity;

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary cell structure highlighting the cell edgeswhere reserved resource blocks are used for transmission by each Node Bthrough application of interference co-ordination through fractionalfrequency re-use;

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary partitioning of the downlink transmission timeinterval (TTI) illustrating the transmission of the control channelCategory 0, the remaining control channel, and the data channel;

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary transmission of the control channel Category0, and of the remaining control channel in various modulation and codingscheme (MCS) regions. Time division multiplexing (TDM) is assumedbetween the control and data channels; and

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary transmission of the control channel Category0, and of the remaining control channel in various modulation and codingscheme (MCS) regions. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is assumedbetween the control and data channels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It should be understood at the outset that although an exemplaryimplementation of one embodiment of the disclosure is illustrated below,the system may be implemented using any number of techniques, whethercurrently known or in existence. The disclosure should in no way belimited to the exemplary implementations, drawings, and techniquesillustrated below, including the exemplary design and implementationillustrated and described herein, but may be modified within the scopeof the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.

Embodiments of the invention address the problem of spectrally efficientcontrol signalling design for scheduling of downlink (DL) and uplink(UL) data packet transmissions in OFDMA-based networks, includingvariants of the OFDMA transmission method such as the single-carrierFDMA (SC-FDMA) transmission method. The DL of a communication systemrefers to the communication from a serving base station (also commonlyreferred to as Node B) to one or more UEs and the UL refers to thecommunication from one or more UEs to a serving Node B. The controlchannel is transmitted m the DL (from the Node B to the scheduled UEs).

The DL control channel, also referred to as DL shared control channel(SCCH), is a major part of the DL overhead (in addition to referencesignals and other synchronization or broadcast channels) that directlyimpacts the achievable throughput and peak data rates. Minimization ofthis overhead requires corresponding minimization of the correspondingsignaling bits and optimization for the spectral efficiency of the SCCHtransmission. While only minor improvements are possible for the former,mainly through efficient mapping techniques for the scheduled UEidentities (IDs) and frequency resource block (RB) allocations, thelatter requires careful transmission design.

In the following discussion, a field indicating the SCCH size isreferred to as SCCH Category 0 (or Cat0). This field does not carry anyinformation relating to DL or UL scheduling assignments. Rather, itspurpose is to dimension the control channel so that UEs know how todecode the remaining SCCH that carries the scheduling relatedinformation. The SCCH part carrying the scheduled UE IDs and allocatedRB position for each scheduled UE is referred to SCCH Category 1 (orCat1). The remaining SCCH part is referred to as Category 2 (or Cat2).Cat2 carries information related to the modulation and coding scheme(MCS) applied to the data transmission, the transport format, hybrid ARQ(HARQ) information relating to possible data packet retransmissions andpossibly additional information such as for the multi-input multi-output(MEMO) antenna scheme applied to data transmission.

This invention describes an SCCH structure involving Cat0 and theremaining SCCH (carrying scheduling assignment information). For the DLscheduling assignments (or scheduling grants), Cat2 may be transmittedeither separately to Cat1 in RBs assigned to DL data transmission ortogether with Cat1 (in a single codeword as known in prior art).Clearly, only joint transmission of Cat1 and Cat2 is possible for ULscheduling assignments as there are no corresponding RBs in which datatransmission follows in the DL (unless a UE has simultaneous DL and DLscheduling assignments). For ease of reference, the remaining SCCH(other than Cat0), will be referred to as Cat1, particularly in someFigures. It is not relevant to the invention whether Cat2 for DLassignments, as described in the previous paragraph, is transmittedtogether or separately to Cat1.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary partition for Cat0 810 and the remaining SCCH820. As it was previously mentioned, Cat0 has a predetermined size andtransmitted with an MCS that is known to all UEs. It specifies the sizeof the remaining SCCH. It is not necessary that Cat0 is transmitted incontiguous sub-carriers before the remaining SCCH and in practice thesub-carriers carrying the two may be multiplexed to provide frequencydiversity. The remaining time-frequency resources can be assumed to beallocated to data 830, or other channels such as the reference signalchannel, the synchronization channel, and the broadcast channel.

FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 show an exemplary structure for SCCH Cat0 and Cat1(remaining SCCH) further illustrating the embodiments of the invention.Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) of the control and data channels isassumed in FIG. 9. Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) is assumed inFIG. 10. In the following, we refer to the TDM option but the samedescriptions and arguments also apply for the FDM one.

Cat0 910 informs the UEs of the remaining SCCH size, thereby limitingthe waste of resources associated with having a fixed SCCH size whichmay not always be filled. The exemplary SCCH granularity in FIG. 9 isone RB 970 in one OFDM symbol 980 but it can generally be any number ofsub-carriers, including one sub-carrier, or even one OFDM symbol.Obviously, the smallest granularity in an MCS region is specified by theminimum number of resources (typically RBs) required for thetransmission of a single DL or UL scheduling assignment, whichever issmaller. Larger granularities than the minimum one may also be used andmay extent to half or even one OFDM symbol. In such cases, the SCCH sizespecified by Cat0 in an MCS region implies that the each of the numbersfor the corresponding DL and UL scheduling assignments is above the onesfor the next lower possible SSCH size, if any, and equal to or smallerthan the ones for the specified SSCH size.

The control channel (scheduling assignment) corresponding to a scheduledUE is transmitted with a MCS determined by the SINR that will beexperienced by the transmission to that UE. The serving Node B candetermine this SINR either based on the DL CQI reported by each UEhaving a DL scheduling assignment, or implicitly based on the UL CQI theserving Node B determines for each UE having an UL schedulingassignment. The larger the SINR, the higher the MCS in terms of spectralefficiency. As the exemplary embodiment considers that the controlchannel transmission from the serving Node B to each scheduled UE isdistributed in frequency, the MCS region may be determined based on theaverage SINR and not the individual SINR in each RB. Three MCS regions920, 930, and 940 are considered (as an example) in FIG. 9 (the sameapplies in FIG. 10) and the remaining RBs in the OFDM symbols of a TTIare allocated to data 950 and other channels such as reference signals(not shown). Reference signals may also occupy OFDM symbols where thecontrol channel is transmitted. In general, more than three MCS regionsmay be used as shown below for example in Table 1. Repetition coding ofone MCS results into a different MCS (with spectral efficiency that isinversely proportional to the repetition factor).

TABLE 1 MCS 7 16QAM, R = ⅔ MCS 6 16QAM, R = ½ MCS 5 16QAM, R = ⅓ MCS 4QPSK, R = ½ MCS 3 QPSK, R = ⅓ MCS 2 QPSK, R = ¼ MCS 1 QPSK, R = ⅓, 2×repetition MCS 0 QPSK, R = ¼, 2× repetition

The lowest MCS region 925 in terms of spectral efficiency (oradditionally the next lower MCS region(s) 935 if possible in terms ofavailable resources) may be associated with reserved RBs for use at thecell edge through the application of cell edge interferenceco-ordination through fractional frequency reuse (IC-FFR), embodimentsof which are described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No.11/535,867. With IC-FFR, certain RBs in a reference Node B are reservedto be protected by interference from interfering (adjacent) Node Bs byimposing the restriction that the interfering Node Bs do not transmitwith full power in the RBs reserved by the referenced Node B (FIG. 7).In the example of FIG. 7, cell 1 is allocated one-third of that spectrum710, cells 2, 4, and 6 are allocated a second one-third 720, and cells3, 5, and 7 are allocated the final one-third 730. When the Node Bscheduler of any of the previous cells schedules a set of UEs fortransmission, it may assign the one-third of these scheduled UEs itdetermines to be located closer to the cell edge (than the remainingtwo-thirds of UEs) in the one-third of reserved RBs this reference NodeB has been allocated. The remaining two-thirds of scheduled UEs, deemedto be located closer to the cell interior, are scheduled in theremaining two-thirds of the available spectrum. With IC-FFR, the lowSINR. values of the geometry CDF are improved and no repetition codingis necessary, thereby improving spectral efficiency and avoidingunnecessary increase of the SCCH size and the corresponding overhead.

The control channel codeword carrying the scheduling assignmentinformation for each DL or UL scheduled UE is transmitted with an MCScorresponding to the SINR conditions of the referenced TIE as determinedby the serving Node B. As the SINR conditions experienced by UEs in theserving area of a Node B may have significant variations, multiple MCSregions are used to capture the SINR. conditions, The larger the numberof MCS regions, the smaller the granularity of the SINR range capturedby each MCS region but the larger the Cat0 size and overhead. The MCSregions are predetermined.

The main embodiment of this invention, that is further described in theremaining of this application, can be summarized as follows: A fieldreferred to as Cat0 is transmitted by the serving Node B and should bedesigned so that it is received by all UEs with a desired reliability.Cat0 implicitly or explicitly informs of the size of the remainingcontrol channel in each MCS region. Cat0 is transmitted by the servingNode B with a predetermined MCS and a predetermined size and both areknown in advance by all UEs. The MCS regions are predetermined.

-   -   a. With use of IC-FFR, Cat0 may be transmitted in reserved RBs        to mitigate inter-cell interference and may occupy part or all        of the reserved RBs.    -   b. With the use IC-FTR, Cat0 may correspond to different        pre-determined MCS regions during different TTIs.

Additional attributes of the SCCH transmission (including Cat0) areoutlined as follows:

-   -   a) Puncturing and repetition may be used to fit Cat0 or the        remaining SCCH into an integer number of RBs (or, in general fix        the remaining SCCH, into a multiple of the minimum number of        resources required for the transmission of a control channel        codeword for DL or UL scheduling assignments in each MCS        region).    -   b) The number of RBs for each MCS region directly depends on the        number of DL and UL scheduled UEs having their SCCH (other than        Cat0) transmitted in that MCS region.    -   c) With application of IC-FFR, at least one or more RBs are        reserved in each cell for protection from inter-cell        interference. The position of the first reserved RB can be a        function of the cell ID or it can be signaled in the        synchronization channel (SCH) or in the broadcast channel (BCH).        Two signaled bits are required for an effective soft frequency        re-use factor of 3 with IC-FFR. SCCH transmission (including        Cat0) to cell edge UEs is carried through the reserved RBs that        are protected from most of the inter-cell interference.    -   d) With IC-FFR, the relative position of the MCS regions can be        specified relative to the one of the reserved RBs.        Alternatively, without IC-FFR, the relative position of the MCS        regions may depend on the order of these regions. For example,        the first RB in FIG. 8 may be occupied by the lowest (UE        populated) MCS region, the second RB may be occupied by the next        lower MCS region and so on. The MCS regions may be ranked in        accordance to their spectral efficiency. For example, an MCS        employing QPSK modulation and code rate of ⅓0 has a lower rank        than an MCS region employing QAM16 modulation and code rate ⅓.    -   e) Frequency hopping (FH) is applied to RBs (or sub-carriers)        carrying the same control channel codeword to provide frequency        diversity. This also allows effective link adaptation for        distributed scheduled UEs.    -   f) If one MCS region ends while another continues, the RBs (or        sub-carriers) of the latter can continue following the same        pattern, leaving RBs (or sub-carriers) that would be occupied by        the former for the data channel. Alternatively, they can change        the pattern and occupy RBs (or sub-carriers) of the former so        that Cat1 has a continuous structure (for a small loss in        frequency diversity). This can be predetermined and each UE        knows of the RBs (or sub-carriers) occupied by Cat1 (remaining        SCCH) through Cat0.    -   g) Based at least on the reported CQI, the scheduler first        determines the number of UEs whose SCCH transmission (not        including Cat0) can achieve the desired codeword error rate        target (e.g. 1%) with the highest MCS. Subsequently, the second        highest MCS is considered, and so on until the SCCH of all UEs        selected for scheduling is mapped onto a certain MCS.    -   h) If for any scheduled UEs, the SCCH transmission cannot        achieve the desired target codeword error rate (at the lowest        predetermined MCS region), the transmission may either still        occur if it can achieve reasonably low error rate or scheduling        of these UEs can be postponed for a later transmission time        interval (TTI)-blocked transmission. The selection of the lowest        MCS region should he such that blocked transmissions are very        infrequent (e.g. 1% or less probability of a blocked        transmission) and depends on the SINR distribution of UEs in the        serving Node B.    -   i) The size of each MCS region may vary between consecutive TTIs        depending on the number of UEs whose Cat1 (remaining SCCH) is        transmitted in each MCS region.    -   j) Cat0 and the remaining SCCH are transmitted with priority to        data at or near the beginning of a transmission time interval.

The SINR that will be experienced by each transmission from the servingNode B to each DL or UL scheduled UE can be utilized to code the controlchannel information (scheduling assignments) in the appropriate MCSregion in order to ensure reception with a target error rate. Inaddition to the SINR, the MCS region depends on the transmitter andreceiver antenna diversity, on the UE speed (as determined for examplebased on Doppler shift estimation at the serving Node B), and on themulti-path propagation conditions introduced by the channel medium toeach transmitted control channel signal as they directly impact theachievable control codeword error rate for a given SINR value. For DLscheduled UEs, the SINR is determined from the CQI feedback these UEsprovide to the serving Node B in order for the latter to schedule thetransmission of data packets (by determining the MCS and the RBs usedfor the data transmission to a corresponding scheduled UE). For ULscheduled UEs, the SINR may be determined at the serving Node B throughthe transmission of a reference signal by each UL scheduled UE over theentire LU scheduling bandwidth for that UE.

Although the DL communication channel used for the control signaling(scheduling assignments) transmission and the UL communication channelused to obtain an SINR estimate for UL scheduled UEs may have differentfading characteristics, the additional diversity provided by thepossible multiple transmitter and receiver antennas and the frequencyhopped transmission of the control channel introducing frequencydiversity can effectively mitigate the impact of variations in thefading characteristics between the two communication channels. Moreover,as the multi-path propagation characteristics experienced by a given UEare typically the same in the DL and UL of a communication system, theNode B may use this information to provide additional protection to UEsexperiencing low multi-path diversity by placing the correspondingcontrol signaling information in a lower MCS region than indicated bythe UL SINR measurement, thereby providing some performance margin.

The main embodiment of the invention relates to the transmission of afield implicitly or explicitly specifying the size of the remainingcontrol channel (communicating the scheduling assignments) in each ofthe pre-determined MCS regions and therefore, (exactly or approximately,respectively) specifying the number of DL and UL UEs whose codewords aretransmitted in each of the pre-determined MCS regions. This field isreferred to as Cat0. Cat0 is a critical field that should be accuratelyreceived by all UEs in the cell as it is necessary to correctly decodethe remaining SCCH carrying the scheduling assignments. Therefore, itsMCS should be low enough to ensure accurate reception by UEs in very lowSINR regions that are expected in the serving Node B.

As the Cat0 transmission spectral efficiency is small, additionalmechanisms may be used to ensure that Cat0 does not consume as lot ofresources. One way to improve the spectral efficiency of Cat0transmission is to place it in reserved RBs for which UEs at the celledge are substantially protected from inter-cell interference throughIC-FFR. This will increase the lower expected SINR values, therebyimproving the spectral efficiency as a higher MCS can be used (relativeto the case of no IC-FFR). For example, with IC-FFR Cat0 may betransmitted with QPSK modulation and rate ⅓ convolutional codingassuming transmitter and receiver antenna diversity while without IC-FFRCat0 codeword repetitions may be needed for the same transmissionparameters.

The information bits in Cat0 depend on the number of MCS regions usedfor the remaining SCCH transmission and on the maximum number ofscheduled UEs in the DL and UL of the communication system. For example,for 10 MHz operating bandwidth and 6 MCS regions, having 3 bits toindicate the number of UEs per MCS region (for a maximum of 7 DL/ULcodewords per MCS region), the total number of information bits neededfor Cat0 is 36. For 3 MCS regions, the corresponding number of Cat0information bits is 18. It should be noted that the number of DLscheduled UEs needs to be indicated separately from the number of ULscheduled UEs as the corresponding numbers of control signaling bits(SCCH sizes) are typically different.

Several ways to reduce the number of bits per MCS region nay beconsidered. For example, certain MCS regions may statistically support asmaller number of UEs than others and the corresponding number of bitsmay be reduced (for example, from 3 to 2). Also, some restrictions canbe placed on the scheduler regarding the UEs that can be scheduled ineach TTI. As the scheduling gains are mostly applicable to low speed UEsfor which the channel does not materially change between consecutiveTTIs, the scheduler may not use a subset of possible MCS regions in oneTTI and use them at the next TTI (where the corresponding UEs are alsoscheduled). With this method, the pattern of used MCS regions acrossTTIs needs to be pre-determined.

Since a (typically) 16-bit CRC transmission requires similar overhead(number of bits) as Cat0, CRC transmission may be avoided, The remainingSCCH is protected by CRC and incorrect reception of Cat0 by a scheduledUE will be subsequently recognized by the inability of that UE tocorrectly decode the remaining SCCH. Nevertheless, there may besituations where it is preferable that all UEs, and not just scheduledones, decode Cat0. In such ease, CRC protection of Cat0 is required.

Another option for the reduction of Cat0 overhead is to transmit itperiodically (once every multiple TTIs). This is meaningful only if theassociated Cat0 overhead reduction is larger than the overheadassociated with “empty” SCCH transmissions in some MCS regions. “Empty”SCCH transmissions occur when the initial Cat0 indication for the SCCHcodewords in the various MCS regions is not fulfilled in subsequent TTIsprior to the next Cat0 transmission. For example, if the Cat0transmission indicates 3 DL UEs and 2 UL UEs codewords in an MCS region,subsequent SCCH transmissions cannot exceed these numbers for either theDL or UL scheduled UEs (implying scheduler restrictions). In case asmaller number of DL or CL UEs have their codewords transmitted in thereferenced MCS region (for example, 2 DL UEs and 2 UL UEs), theremaining resources (in the example, the resources for the third DL SCCHcodeword) as implicitly indicated by the initial Cat0 transmission mayremain empty and may not used for data transmission as the UEs cannotdirectly know the SCCH size. Alternatively, each UE may perform blinddetection for the possible size of each MCS region, provided that it hassmall variations relative to its value as specified by the lasttransmission instance of Cat0, however, this entails additional UEdecoding complexity. Moreover, periodic transmission of Cat0 overseveral TTIs also restricts the spectral efficiency of the remainingSCCH transmission, for example due to the inability in subsequent TTIsto place Cat1 of scheduled UEs in good SINR conditions in a higher MCSregion by increasing its size.

Typically, SCCH transmission to a single UE (DL or UL) in poor SINRcondition has to be supported with a low MCS and, as a result, itrequires resources that can be comparable to those of Cat0. Therefore,as many UEs need to be simultaneously scheduled and as low MCS regionsneed to often exist in the SCCH transmission, the inability toreasonably adapt the SCCH between TTIs is can be costlier than thetransmission of Cat0 in every TTI. Even if the Cat0 transmission periodis as often as every other TTI, it likely remains in general a worsealternative to continuous Cat0 transmission in every TTI if even smallvariations in the number of scheduled UEs in the lower MCS regions occurbetween consecutive TTIs. The preferred embodiment considers Cat0transmission in the DL of a communication system in every TTI but theapplication does not preclude periodic Cat0 transmission (once every anumber of TTIs larger than one).

Another option for the reduction of Cat0 overhead is to increase thegranularity of the control channel size that is specifies. For example,instead of specifying the exact number of DL and UL UEs havingscheduling assignments, a larger (titan one) granularity can be used.Although this reduces the number of required Cat0 bits in each MCSregion, it also increases the waste of resources in case the number ofDL and UL scheduling assignments are within but not equal to theselected granularity.

It should be noted that the Cat0 transmission may be utilized withouthaving multiple MCS regions for the transmission of the DL and ULscheduling assignments. In the case of a single MCS, Cat0 simply reducesto specifying the number of DL and UL control channel codewords during aTTI for the given MCS either with granularity of one (exact number) orwith larger granularity.

As the control size codeword size may depend on whether MIMO isemployed, UEs for which MIMO transmission is supported can havedifferent control size codeword size than UEs for which MIMOtransmission is not supported. To account for this codeword sizevariability in dimensioning the control channel size, Cat0 may alsospecify the number of UEs having MIMO transmission in each MCS regionfor either DL or UL scheduling assignments.

If Cat0 specifies that the control channel terminates at a fraction ofan OFDM symbol, the remaining RBs in that symbol (RBs that are notoccupied by the control channel) can be used for data assignment. WhichUE gets which of the remaining RBs in the OFDM symbol partially occupiedby the control channel cart be determined according to a pre-specifiedrule. Typically, RB allocation is valid for a specific time duration,such as one TTI. Then, for any reference RB from the aforementionedremaining RN in the OFDM symbol partially occupied by the controlchannel, the UE assigned the same RB for data reception in the DL mayalso assume that it also gets data allocation in the reference RB in theOFDM symbol partially occupied by the control channel.

Moreover, as unicast transmission (that is, dedicated communicationbetween it serving Node B and a UE) may be TDM with multicast/broadcasttransmission (that is, transmission of the same information frommultiple Node Bs), DL unicast may not exist during certain TTIs while ULunicast may continue. For this reason, the control channel for unicastmay still be transmitted in multicast/broadcast TTIs carrying only ULscheduling information, as suggested in U.S. Application 60/733,675. Insuch cases, Cat0 carries the aforementioned information only for ULscheduling assignments.

Another information field that may be included in Cat0 is an indicationfor the reference signal (RS) structure, the RS is also known as pilotsignal, for the serving Node B. This is because, especially for multipleNode B transmitter antennas, different RS overheads may be needed toaccommodate supportable UE velocities (with higher UE velocitiestypically requiring higher RS overheads). A 1-bit indicator in Cat0 canthen be used to inform the UEs between two possible RS structures (onewith lower overhead and one with higher overhead) depending on the typeof DL (and possibly UL) scheduled UEs (for example, the RS structurewith the higher overhead can be used when there are high velocity UEsscheduled in the reference TTI; otherwise the RS structure with thelower overhead can be used). This field may obviously contain more than1 bit if finer granularity of RS overhead with the velocity of scheduledUEs is needed. Although not related to the control channel, such a fieldwill be necessary in Cat0 to enable dynamic selection of the RSstructure per TTI according to the needs of the DL (and possibly UL)scheduled UEs.

While several embodiments have been provided in the disclosure, itshould be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may beembodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spiritor scope of the disclosure. The examples are to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limitedto the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope of theappended claims along with their full scope of equivalents. For example,the various elements or components may be combined or integrated inanother system or certain features may be omitted, or not implemented.

Also, techniques, systems, subsystems and methods described andillustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may becombined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, ormethods without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Other itemsshown or discussed as directly coupled or communicating with each othermay be coupled through some interface or device, such that the items mayno longer be considered directly coupled to each other but may still beindirectly coupled and in communication, whether electrically,mechanically, or otherwise with one another. Other examples of changes,substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in theart and could be made without departing from the spirit and scopedisclosed herein.

1-31. (canceled)
 32. An apparatus, comprising: circuitry fortransmitting control signaling information in a transmission timeinterval comprising multiple symbols; and circuitry for transmitting afield with a predetermined modulation and coding scheme in the first ofsaid multiple symbols, said field indicating the size of said controlsignaling information by indicating the number of symbols used totransmit said control signaling information.
 33. The apparatus of claim32, wherein said field is transmitted during each transmission timeinterval.
 34. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said field istransmitted once in multiple transmission time intervals.
 35. Theapparatus of claim 32, wherein said field is located in at least aportion of more than one sub-carrier.
 36. The apparatus of claim 32,wherein said field is transmitted in at least a portion of a reservedresource.
 37. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said field istransmitted using frequency hopping.
 38. The apparatus of claim 32,wherein said field is transmitted with priority to data.
 39. Theapparatus of claim 32, wherein said field further specifies thereference signal structure during a transmission time interval among atleast two possible reference signal.
 40. The apparatus of claim 32,wherein said transmission employs an OFDMA transmission method.
 41. Theapparatus of claim 32, wherein a Cat field indicates the total size ofthe control signaling.
 42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the totalsize is determined by the number of transmission time interval symbolsin the Cat field.
 43. An apparatus, comprising: circuitry for receivingcontrol signaling information in a transmission time interval comprisingmultiple symbols; circuitry for receiving a field in the first symbol ofsaid multiple symbols, said field indicating the size of the controlsignal information; and circuitry for decoding said control informationin the number of symbols indicated by said field.
 44. The apparatus ofclaim 43, wherein said field is transmitted during each transmissiontime interval.
 45. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein said field istransmitted once in multiple transmission time intervals.
 46. Theapparatus of claim 43, wherein said field is transmitted using frequencyhopping.
 47. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein said field istransmitted with priority to data.
 48. The apparatus of claim 43,wherein said received information is transmitted using an OFDMAtransmission method.
 49. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein said fieldis transmitted in several non-contiguous sets wherein each set containsmultiple sub-carriers that are contiguous.
 50. The apparatus of claim43, wherein said size is indicated by the number of symbols used totransmit said control signaling information.
 51. The apparatus of claim43, wherein said field is received in several sets of non-contiguousresources wherein each set contains multiple sub-carriers that arecontiguous.